Author Holly Surplice tells Coast how life on the Isle of Lewis and life growing up on a farm on the south west coast of Scotland has influenced her latest book
I think if you’re lucky enough to grow up on the coast, it calls to your heart whenever you move away. I spent many years living inland after leaving home but always knew if I got the chance, my dream was to live by the sea again.
When I was 21, I spent a week staying in the disused Lowlight lighthouse on the Isle of May drawing seabirds. Later, it became a favourite place to take students on drawing trips – I don’t have the best sea-legs but the bumpy boat trip was always worth it to see the puffins, shags, eider ducks and terns that live there.
Home now is the Isle of Lewis, and although well-populated and much more accessible than the Isle of May, its remote wildness reminds me of that tiny island so much. Living on an island fills my heart and feeds my creativity. As soon as I landed here, it felt like I was home. Walking each morning along the beach, listening to the waves, tasting salt on my lips is everything to me. It resets and restores me whilst also flooding my brain with inspiration for the stories I write and the pictures I paint.
In my new book, The Horse Dreamer, my characters share some of their most special moments in and beside the sea. These were inspired by a combination of childhood memories riding and swimming in the sea with horses, and the present-day thoughts and feelings I have of living on a wild Scottish island. These scenes are rooted in both dreams and reality, much like how I feel every time I stand on the dunes, watching the gannets, luminous white against dark skies diving into turquoise waters, rainbows never far away.
The Horse Dreamer by Holly Surplice is out now in hardback for 9+ year olds published by Chicken House.
